“Community” has been the overarching theme for the Law for Change Student Competition since 2018. A community brings individuals together and empowers them to work together in daily life, in pursuit of betterment beyond one’s self or group. The theme serves as a platform for potential collaboration and partnership across sectors, professions, generations, race, gender, and cultural identity.
In 2020, “resilience” is the chosen focus. Students are invited to develop projects that use the law to build community resilience. Resilience is the capability to respond, adapt, and recover from challenges and adversities. Community resilience is the ability of a community to deal with internal and external disturbances and stresses while retaining its essence and to move towards better environment, social, and economic health and wellbeing. The Hong Kong community is facing enormous and unprecedented challenges: a pandemic, the widest wealth gap in 45 years, ongoing social and political unrest — building community resilience is especially important in these turbulent times. Students are encouraged to find methods of collaboration within the community, especially in the areas of health and well-being, social cohesion and good governance. Projects could aim at capacity building, legal empowerment, policy change/law reform, or creating strategic partnerships, among others.
Phase 1: September 2020 Concept Brainstorming |
Phase 2: October to December 2020 Proposal Development |
Phase 3: January 2021 Project Pitch |
Phase 4: February 2022 and after Project Implementation |
October 04, 2020: Submission of Concept Note
Student teams have to submit concept note by 4 October 2020. Students have to include problem tree analysis, survey on existing services provided to the target group, identify and interview at least one NGO that works in the same field.
December 20, 2020: Submission of Proposal
Details coming soon.
January 23, 2021: Pitching Day
Students will pitch their ideas in front of the judges
January 2021: Project Showcase & Award Ceremony
(Date to be confirmed)
Eligibility
- Students should form teams of between two and five people.
- Each student can only be associated with one team.
- Teams may be comprised of students from different institutions.
- The competition is most suitable for students who have completed at least one year of a law program (an LLB or postgraduate law program) in Hong Kong.
- We highly encourage non-law students to work with law student to form a team, as long as a half of the team is enrolled in any law program in Hong Kong
Selection Criteria
Executive Summary
PILnet will select eight finalist teams based on the following criteria:
- Innovative aspects of the project;
- How the law is used and the strength of legal aspects in the project;
- The project’s relevance to the theme;
- The quality of problem analysis; and
- The practicality of the project.